Joshua

Where Joshua comes from

From Biblical Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshúa'), perhaps from הוֹשֵׁעַ (Hoshéa') with addition of יהוה (YHWH, “Yahweh”), thus meaning "Yahweh is salvation". See הוֹשִׁיעַ (hoshía', “to save”). By cognate a direct equivalent to Jesus via Latin Iēsūs and Ancient Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs) from Aramaic יֵשׁוּע (Yēšū́ʿ), akin to Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshúa'), a variant of Yehoshúa'. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament consistently render the two Hebrew names Yehoshúa' (whence Joshua) and Yeshúa' (whence Jeshua) into Koine Greek as Iēsoûs (whence Jesus).
— Wiktionary's entry for Joshua
  • Hebrew
  • 3 syllables
  • Vowel-ended
Along the way
  1. 1880
    First SSA year
    Already #211 among boys — 57 babies in the first year on record.
  2. 1995
    Joshua Kimmich born
    German association football player
  3. 2000
    Joshua Bassett born
    American actor and singer-songwriter
  4. 2002
    Peak, #3
    25,998 babies named Joshua — more than any year before or since.
  5. 2012
    The fade
    The first year with half the peak's births — down to #17.
In the dictionary
  • A male given name from Hebrew.
Namesakes
  • Joshua Bassett · American actor and singer-songwriter, born 2000
  • Joshua Kimmich · German association football player, born 1995
  • Joshua Reynolds · English painter, 1723–1792
  • Joshua Lederberg · American molecular biologist, 1925–2008
  • Joshua Kennedy · Australian association football player, born 1982

Sources: the origin note and dictionary entry are quoted from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); the namesakes come from Wikidata (CC0); the milestones are worked out from the SSA record.